Presented is a lab exercise designed to augment an upper-level undergraduate class covering the topics of psychopharmacology, biopsychology, physiological psychology, or introductory neuroscience. The exercise was developed as a tool to allow students to investigate behavioral correlates of oral psychomotor stimulant ingestion and observe firsthand the benefits and challenges of using animal models to study behavior. The purpose of the exercise was to observe the unconditioned, natural behaviors of laboratory rats prior to, and following, the oral administration of commonly used, over-the-counter psychomotor stimulants, and for students to experience the process of neuroscience research. Of specific interest was the comparison of behaviors demonstrated by the animals following ingestion of the nonprescription stimulants caffeine and pseudoephedrine. Students went through the steps of a research project by actively participating in all aspects of experimental design, including construction of testing apparatus, animal care, drug measurement and dosage, data collection, and analyzing behavioral data to determine animal response to psychomotor stimulant exposure. Through repetition of treatment conditions separated by a clearance phase, students observed experiment replication and learned about a research design commonly applied in animal research. Successful replication of treatment effects also served to exemplify the concepts of reliability and validity in behavioral research, while observable responses in animal models provided students with the opportunity to extrapolate important considerations for differential behavioral effects of psychostimulant consumption in humans.
Keywords: animal research; anxiety; caffeine; elevated plus maze (EPM); pseudoephedrine; psychomotor stimulants; psychopharmacology.